KIRKUS REVIEW

A girl learns a devastating truth.

Riley Beckett’s father has been in
prison for over 10 years. Convicted of murder and sentenced to death, he still
maintains his innocence. But after every possible appeal falls through, Riley
visits him and her father divulges a terrible truth: he did it. He’s as guilty
as they come. Reeling from the revelation and desperate for clarity, Riley
searches for the truth about her family’s past even as a copycat murder seems
to throw doubt on her father’s conviction. The resulting mystery is a tad
convoluted and ultimately a bit of a letdown, as readers will have little
trouble connecting the dots. A distracting relationship with hot Latino teen
Jordan Vega feels set up largely to provide drama via Jordan’s police-chief
father. The couple follows the clues and goes through the mystery motions, but
the kicker is they don’t end up solving the case—it’s largely done for them.
The murderer’s motives for doing the deed and coming clean make sense, but that’s
no substitute for a well-earned “mystery solved.” This decision hamstrings the
novel, reframing Riley’s quest for truth as aimless flailing by an
understandably distraught teenage girl. Riley’s race and ethnicity go
unmentioned; absent markers to the contrary, readers will likely assume she is
white.

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